Bulgaria, 17-21 September 2018: The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) organized a study tour to Bulgaria for representatives of public organizations (NGOs) in Turkmenistan and a representative from the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the population of Turkmenistan.

In the framework of the project "Empowering Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to participate in policy making and social service delivery” UNDP in Turkmenistan organizes a study visit to Sofia, Bulgaria for representatives of NGOs to study best practices in the development and implementation of policies for the provision of social services to vulnerable population. The study visit foresees an introduction of the best practices and experience exchange on the operation of the civil society sector in the field of social services provision, studying the legislative frameworks on social services and mechanisms of cooperation of government entities and civil society in social sector.

The event is realized jointly with the Bulgarian Center for Not-for-Profit-Law. The participants had the opportunity to meet with experts from the Ministry of Labor of Bulgaria, the Municipality of Sofia and representatives of civil society, as well as had an interactive dialogue with various non-governmental organizations working in the field of support for youth, children, domestic violence and volunteering.

During the meeting, the following topics were discussed:

1)      The best practices in the process of shaping the legal, regulatory and institutional framework for cooperation between CSOs and government sector in developing social service policy and providing social services to vulnerable population;

2)      Platform models for a social contract on provision of social services by civil society, tools for cooperation with municipalities;

3)      Modern approaches to the state social order and financing mechanisms of the state social order.

This project is co-funded by the Government of Finland and Embassy of Germany in Ashgabat.